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A.A
A.A is the fifteenth episode of Malcolm in the Middle. Synopsis The family has to go an visit Francis at his A.A celebration, for going one full year of being sober. Plot Hal and Lois are packing their bags to visit Francis at the rehab center to help him celebrate one year of sobriety. As they finish packing, she mentions that the boys will be at home while they're gone. Hal is against and doesn't want to go anywhere without leaving the boys alone in the house, fearing that they would cause trouble if left alone. He mentions that he'd feel a lot better if they had been left home with proper supervision from a babysitting agency. Lois refuses to call anyone to watch the boys before they leave. She reminds Hal of the previous times they last called someone from the agency to babysit the boys. No sooner that they leave and stay in a hotel room, he and Lois would end up fielding calls from the babysitters' constant complaints regarding the boys' misbehavior. This would end with both of them having their own vacations ruined and having to coming home early to deal with their misbehavior. Hence, Lois has officially given up on calling for a babysitter for the boys. She mentions that the babysitting agency has blacklisted the family too many times because of Malcolm and Reese(whom are their biggest tormenters). Lois also reminds Hal that they had left her mother, Ida, in charge of them one time before they left with Dewey for his musical recital in St. Louis, which to her was a terrible mistake. This results in Ida misbehaving herself by making both Reese and Malcolm compete over her nurse, Raduca, a girl whom the family barely knew about. It also resulted in Reese marrying her and she was caught cheating on him with her lesbian lover. Whatever Hal was about to say is interrupted by Jamie annoying the parents in the van by honking the horn. He tells Jamie that they're coming as Lois mentions that he's been excited to go to the babysitter's house for a while and is worried she might feed him sugar. Hal leaves to deal with Jamie and the bags, while Lois is left in the kitchen. Malcolm, Reese and Dewey appears in front of her. Lois mentions that she hid Hal's car keys in a place that they won't find it, gave them money for pizza and left the emergency phone numbers to call(even giving some of the numbers to the neighbors). She also warns them not to misbehave while she and Hal are gone. This means no tomfoolery, no fighting with each other, no pranks in the neighborhood and even no parties in the house. Lois grabs the old vase which is the last thing of value she has that they haven't broken, mentioning that she doesn't want to worry in how they'd break, trying to hide the pieces and even coming up with a cover story. Hence to ease her own thoughts, Lois breaks the vase herself and the boys are in disbelief. Before leaving, she once more warns them to behave because she doesn't want a phone call from the neighbors and even the police in regards to them. At the apartment, Francis and Piama shows them. This is worrisome to Hal who thinks the place is not ideal for him and Lois to stay in, believing its too rundown. He tries to suggest that they stay in a hotel room while they're visiting him. Francis isn't having any of it and insists they stay here. When Lois attend his A.A. meeting, she find out that he never really was an alcoholic. He blamed his psychological problems on her all those years as payback for making his life a living hell. Meanwhile, Dewey finds the spare key to Hal's car. Reese and Malcolm are excited to use the car to prank the South High School's band practice by spilling pig's blood over them. However, Dewey is trying to obey Lois' wishes to behave themselves and asks them to take him to the arcade. He tries to convince Malcolm and Reese it's safer to go there than risk her anger if she gets a call from the police regarding them. They refuse to drive Dewey there because it's too childish and they already have plans. Thus, he gets revenge on Malcolm and Reese by swallowing the key. It takes them more than 12 steps to find it – in his stomach. After making Dewey throw it up, Malcolm and Reese are able to collect the key. At the apartment, Hal tries to calmly diffuse the situation. Lois points out that Francis had always made her life a living hell as well. He insists that they should leave on good terms. Lois then apologizes for her behavior and gives Francis the loan. She admits there were times she was irrational because she didn't want to accept things that were outside her control and this had lead her to drink champagne a few times on her birthday. When Lois and Francis have a fight again, she has another epiphany. She finally realizes that no matter how hard she tries to make him be a responsible adult, Francis will never change. Disheartened by this, Lois gives up on him and leaves. Seeing her disheartened over how much he didn't care to take responsibility for himself, Hal is angry. He calls Francis out for his behavior and how he could never let go of his anger to Lois by blaming her for his nonexistent alcoholism. By ripping the loan papers in front of him, Hal makes Francis see how bitterly disappointed he and Lois both are in him. He thought that by bringing it with them to give him, they were hoping that he would be a respectable adult and buy back his love. Hal tells Francis off that after seeing how much he hasn't changed and hurting Lois' feelings, he can't continue supporting him any longer. He grabs both his and Lois' suitcases. Before leaving, Hal tells Francis off that he has to let go of his ego for once. He mentions that his eldest son needs to take a long hard look at himself and see where the source of his problems are so he can fix them. He's giving Francis until his birthday to fix his problems and be a responsible adult for once in his life. Otherwise, this is going to be the last time Hal and Lois will see him. After he leaves for the car, Francis takes a hard look at himself in the mirror and realizes Hal was right. He had been spending too much time blaming Lois for everything instead of looking at the source of his problem was not only himself, but also Piama for lying to him about being an alcoholic. This leads to a fight between them. Francis demanded to know how she never told him that he was never drunk. Piama defends herself claiming he had looked drunk and didn't know he was only sick at the time. If she had known Francis was sick, she would've taken him to the doctor. Trivia *Piama's first appearance in season 7. *Lois says that she's officially given up on having people babysit the boys while she and Hal are gone. The last time she had someone babysit was in the episode Bride of Ida, where Ida babysat them and tortured them with her sadistic games for a chance of marrying her Russian caretaker, Raduca. Reese runs away from home and get married to a girl he knew little to nothing about. This is very obviously why Lois gave up on that and showing that she cares about Reese. **Another reason that Lois has given up on having someone babysit the boys while she and Hal go out of town is because she is tired of the constant complaining that they received from previous babysitters in regards to the boys' misbehavior. This is mainly evident with Malcolm and Reese in Water Park as it's a prime example in how badly they misbehaved each time that she and Hal go out of town. Dewey did nothing wrong and got along with his babysitter in Mrs. White. **Reese's Party also supports the reason why Lois has given up having someone babysit them at the house. In order to curb the constant complaints from their potential babysitters, she and Hal decided to separate the boys from one another. Malcolm is to spend the weekend at Stevie's house, Dewey is to stay at Craig's home and Reese has to spend the weekend on the bus. Category:Episodes Category:Season 7 Category:Episodes focusing on Francis